


Victory

by justsleepwalkin



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsleepwalkin/pseuds/justsleepwalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Master may not be able to return to his full being, but he can channel his nature through the Doctor. There isn’t any going back now. The first steps have been made and the path behind them is gone, lost amongst the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Victory

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Waters of Mars. Random, written before End of Time.

The Master tells him to do things – his voice is distant, but the Doctor listens sometimes. Sometimes he glances towards where he thinks the voice is coming from, frowning and confused, but with a fraction of hope in his eyes. But then he looks away, back to the TARDIS controls, because there is no one there. There’s never anyone there. The Doctor is alone.

This is the Master’s favorite game thus far, certainly better than crossing the cosmos to do bad to the universe and wait for the Doctor to come try and stop him. Here, he’s situated in the TARDIS, nearly joined to the Doctor’s hip, following him around and being the demon on his shoulder.

There is no angel to counteract him. All the Doctor has is the Master, and the Doctor merely sees it as insanity. Voices of ghosts that don’t belong in his ship. He tries to leave the TARDIS for extended amounts of time, to see if it would help, to see if the voices were only amongst her gratings, her walls. The Master lets him think it works. He stays quiet the whole time the Doctor is out, watches his stress curl away from him and he slowly relaxes.

Eventually, the Doctor returns. The Master makes a show of mockery, holding his arms out from the pilot seat – though the Doctor can’t see it – and saying, _“Welcome home, honey! We missed you.”_ He lets the Doctor think he’s safe outside his ship the next few times he leaves it, and it’s hysterical. Every moment of it, every time.

And it’s even more hysterical when the Master finally speaks to him again when they’re outside. He watches the horror cross the Doctor’s face, watches him begin to question everything all over again.

 _“Did you really think you would ever be rid of me, Doctor?”_ he hums, stepping close to the other Time Lord. Still, he is merely a disembodied voice to him; unfortunately, the Doctor always will miss out on the humor that is the Master’s expression, but he makes due.

“No,” is all the Doctor says, more out of wishing this all away, rather than being an answer to the Master’s question.

He wonders how long until the Doctor finally snaps. The Master even makes one of those crazy comments of _“Come to the dark side, we have cookies”_ but the Doctor doesn’t get the joke. For a lover of Earth, he rarely reads the internet. How boring.

They’re on Mars. The Doctor is far too pleased about it, but maybe that’s because the Master has kept fairly silent, too disgusted by their surroundings. Really, how can the Doctor enjoy this?

“You are under arrest for trespassing, Gadget-Gadget.”

The Master laughs. Oh, now he’s enjoying Mars! _“You’re on the red planet for how long until you find trouble, Doctor? Do you have a record, or is this it?”_ It’s hard to see the Doctor’s reaction with that silly helmet. But as he’s being led away and the Master continues to laugh, he catches a glare in his general direction. He thinks about making it hard for the Doctor; he could move circles around the other while speaking, make it so he has to take a wild _guess_.

Oddly, he keeps quiet until they make it to the station. It’s more fun to peer at the equipment.

“Actually, chat’s second on my list. The first being _gun_.”

_“Really, Doctor? Honestly, you are such a wuss.”_

Unsurprisingly, he’s ignored. He observes the sparking robot, on the same page as the Doctor in regards to it. How irritating. What a piece of useless technology. _“I could make something far more superior to this with the same amount of parts, likely less.”_ He looks up, blinking. He could have sworn the Doctor actually dared to reply to him. Must have been his own imagination.

“This is Bowie Base One.”

 _“Oh, Doctor, isn’t that priceless,”_ the Master laughs, leaning against a wall, adding more to himself, _“I wonder how long you’ll busy yourself with this planet.”_ He knows the date easily, even as the Doctor tries to catch up with him. He’s surprised when the Doctor actually makes an effort to leave.

“You’re not going anywhere, 'cept with me.”

 _“Doctor! This is so much_ fun _! Let’s stay to watch them die, oh can we?”_ He’s nearly beaming with energy from the look the Doctor casts his way.

That’s how their time goes, same as always. The Master making side comments, occasionally trying to push the Doctor over the edge. It will work, one day – he’s sure it will. He knows the Doctor better than anyone, probably better than the Doctor himself.

Water of all things is the problem here.

“…It’s like you know more.”

“This moment, this precise moment in time… it’s like… I mean, it’s only a theory, what do I know. But, I think certain moments in time are fixed. _Tiny_ , precious moments. Everything else is in flux – anything can happen – but those certain moments have to stand.”

The Master scoffs.

They make it back to the central section of the station. The captain makes the decision for the Doctor to leave – about time, but how unfortunate. He wanted to _watch_. People die around the Doctor all the time, of course. The Doctor wishes it were otherwise, but it’s true. However, the Doctor could always do with more suffering, in the Master’s opinion.

The humans are so _desperate_ to escape, working to evacuate, but doesn’t anyone hear that irritating sound? He points it out softly, but the Doctor already hears it. _“Poor, poor Doctor. There’s nothing you can do. As always.”_ He taps against a wall, grinning at the Doctor’s discomfort. _“_ Run away _, Doctor. Run like you always do and always will,”_ he mocks.

“Imagine…” he’s saying to the captain, who’s locked him out from leaving, that hesitancy of his, weaker emotions that shouldn’t belong to a Time Lord. “Imagine you knew something… Imagine you found yourself somewhere… I don’t know, Pompeii – imagine you were in Pompeii, and you tried to save them and in doing so you make it happen. …Anything I do… just makes it happen…”

 _“_ You _blew Pompeii? Doctor! I didn’t think you had it in you! So there_ is _hope for you yet!”_

“I’m still here.”

“You’re taking Action One. There are four more standard action procedures, and Action Five is…”

“Detonation.”

“The final option. A nuclear device at the heart of the central dome. Today, on the 21st of November, 2059, Captain Brooke activates that device, taking the base and all her crew members with her. No one ever knows why, but you were saving Earth.”

 _“Doctor!”_ the Master snaps, but it doesn’t stop the other. He growls at being ignored now, because here’s the Doctor saying things aloud that he shouldn’t. He’s caught up in arguing with the captain about what one can and can’t do, too swept up in emotions. _“Why would you tell her?”_ he continues harshly after the Doctor is finally allowed to leave.

They walk across the fine red dust, and he chirps up again, clapping his hands together. Now he sees an option that hadn’t revealed itself until now. _“You know, there’s always that dark side, Doctor. If you were willing to tell her all about time, then why stop there? You made her suffer, you know. You caused her more pain by telling her what happens. I thought you were supposed to make people_ better _, Doctor?”_

The Doctor walks on.

 _“Listen to me!”_ the Master roars, _“You have the capability in your grasp, Doctor. You can_ make them better _, you idiot. You’re a bloody Time Lord.”_ The explosion hits. For just a moment, the Doctor meets the Master’s hard gaze, actually sees him with the backdrop of fire. _“Why should you let an old, deceased regime control what you do?”_

 __The Doctor stands, and watches him.

_“Stop being a coward.”_

They go. The Doctor steps up on high speed to save these precious humans of his. That’s not what the Master cares about. Who cares if they live or die? What matters is what’s becoming of the Doctor. Taking everything in his mind and crushing down those weak emotions and realizing a new truth. Yes. The Master feels as though he’s face to face with victory.

It’s was only a matter of time.

“It’s taken me all this time to realize that the Laws of Time are _mine_ , and _they will obey me_!”

 _“That’s right, Doctor. They’re yours. You’re the only one left, the only one that matters,”_ the Master tells him, follows him as he rushes around the base, going more and more insane. It’s a sight of beauty; the Oncoming Storm finally breaking out and unleashing itself. _“Time obeys you,”_ he says encouragingly.

They’re in the TARDIS with the surviving humans, and like the humans they are, they panic. They don’t comprehend the magnitude of what just happened. The Doctor, their lord and savior. They don’t understand what it means to be grateful because they’re too small minded – “little people.”

“Isn’t anyone going to thank me?”

_“No, Doctor. They won’t. They’re foolish before your power.”_

The Master may not be able to return to his full being, but he can channel his nature through the Doctor. There isn’t any going back now. The first steps have been made and the path behind them is gone, lost amongst the stars.

“For a long time now I thought I was just a survivor, but I’m not. _I’m the winner._ That’s who I am. The Time Lord victorious.”

“And there’s no one to stop you?”

“No.”

“This is _wrong_ , Doctor. I don’t care who you are! The Time Lord victorious is _wrong_!”

_“Humans. They’ll never understand. Important Earth figure or not, she’s weak as the rest.”_

“That’s for me to decide.”

Captain Brooke offs herself – that’s what he gets for telling her she dies and explaining fixed points. Foolish, but it’s just one mistake. Time changes around them, little things, but the end result is still the same, yet it horrifies the Doctor. The Master doesn’t give a damn.

“…I’ve gone too far…”

 _“So what?”_ he says as the Doctor begins to unravel. _“Get over it. There’s no one to slap you on the back of your hand for being a bad boy.”_ He rolls his eyes as the Doctor sinks amongst the snow, shouting at ghosts, jumping at his own shadow. _“Honestly, Doctor, get up. Quit overreacting.”_ He knows about the prophecy the Doctor heard from Carmen; he was there, playing the role of the devil. He’s been there since the Daleks were vanquished yet again, since Donna was deposited and the Doctor cowered like a broken child.

They stand amongst the TARDIS console room, the Doctor on one side of the controls, the Master lurking on the other, in silence until the sound of the cloister bell breaks it.

“No,” the Doctor says at last, and jerks towards the controls.

The Master grins, predatory. _“It isn’t the end, Doctor._ This _is only the beginning.”_ He has plans, after all, and the Doctor makes the perfect pawn.


End file.
